Quick Links

(see the box and photo on the facing page). Saturate the wood with any common solvent, such as denatured alcohol, paint or lacquer thinner. Splotch-prone areas will show up right away because they will absorb the solvent faster, just like they would with stain. Alternating rection changes within the same board, the stain will penetrate unevenly. This effect can be dazzling, as in curly figure, but more often than not, as in areas around knots, a less-than-attractive appearance is the result. It's usually easy to avoid this condition when it exists, simply by reading the grain direction on the edge of a board and cutting around problem areas when you select wood for cabinet or furniture palts. Improper sanding, the easiest cause to detect and correctThe most obvious truths are sometimes hard to see: Improperly sanding the surface of any wood species can cause problems. And careful sanding is especially essential with cherry. Dull sandpaper can burnish the surface rather than cut it, making it less likely to accept a finish. Leaping from rough to really fine abrasives is also a no-no, leaving scratched surface areas that are more porous than others. A scraped or planed cherry surface will usually accept a clear finish evenly, but a stain applied over these surfaces will often spell trouble, too. I usually sand cherry with a random-orbit sander, starting with Photos: William Duckwonh Without Blotches gra in, avoid it when possible-When the grain di- 100-grit and proceeding up through 180-grit, changing grits at 120 and 150. I switch to fresh paper often and inspect the surface in backlighting to make sure I don't miss any spots. I then handsand, using 180-grit, with the grain of the wood. Such careful sanding won't eliminate splotching, but it will help to minimize it, especially in concert with the finishing techniques outlined below. Two strategies that work Some people attempt to tame splotching by controlling how much stain is absorbed. I've heard several woodworkers who swear that the new gel stains help control stain penetration, but I've found that they don't work very well on raw cherry. Washcoating is another technique popular with professional finishers. A washcoat seals off the surface of the wood with a very thin resin-diluted shellac, thinned oil or glue size-which decreases the penetration of a stain. But this technique is hard to control evenly, and less penetration means a lighter shade of stain. I've used two methods to prevent blotches that are well within tl1e range of just about any woodworker's finishing talents. Both are applied by hand, and both yield finishes that have depth and luster with little or no splotching. The first technique (see the top photos on p. 48), which is the easiest, will change cherry from its initial pinkish tone to a golden color that will continue to darken with age. I recommend this technique only for projects that have been carefully matched for grain and figure because exaggerated MAY IJ U N E 1 998 47